CHATHAM — The poise and confidence 18-year-old Gracie Gold showed in her Olympic debut last week wasn’t a surprise to Elizabeth Gregurich.

The Glenwood Intermediate School principal says she saw those same traits when she was Gold’s eighth-grade honors language arts teacher.

“What I saw of her on the ice is exactly the way she’s always been,” Gregurich said. “She was never an emotional girl drawn to the dramas of middle school. She was truly focused, and that’s what I see in her skating, too.”

Gold will hit the ice again Wednesday for the women’s short program. The event will air live on NBC Sports Network (Comcast channel 947) starting at 9 a.m. Springfield time and will re-air on WAND-TV (Comcast channel 10 or 906) at 7 p.m.

Gold will skate 22nd in the field of 30, while her U.S. teammates Ashley Wagner will go 27th and Polina Edmunds will skate 12th. The slots were drawn Monday.

In her Olympic debut, Gold propelled the U.S. team to a bronze medal in the new team figure skating event. Gold had the top performance on the team and season-best free skate score of 129.38.

Gregurich saw it coming.

Gold attended Chatham schools for three years, starting in 2007 for seventh grade. After her freshman year at Glenwood High School, she switched to online education at the University of Missouri High School and moved to Chicago to train full time. From there, she moved to southern California to train with her current coaches.

Gregurich said Gold and her twin sister, Carly, also a competitive figure skater, were both smart and driven students while at Glenwood.

Because they were routinely competing in events across the country, they often had to do their homework on the road without the help of a teacher. That wasn’t an issue, Gregurich said, noting that each assignment was completed on time with few mistakes. She credits their parents.

“Their focus was to become top athletes, but they knew education was important,” Gregurich said.

There were many days where Gregurich said she was surprised at the twins’ spirit when they arrived at school.

Before other students woke up, the two girls were at the Nelson Center training by 5 a.m.

“She and her sister were as peppy as possible and would do what they needed to do at school and be back to the training rink that night,” Gregurich said. “Everything they did was done with 110 percent effort.”

When Gold skates again Wednesday, Gregurich said it will remind her of the young girl who once sat in her classroom.

“She is the exactly the same girl she was in eighth grade,” Gregurich said. “She has that totally driven look on her face now that she did then.”